1957 Mille Miglia


The 24. edizione Mille Miglia was an auto race held on a course totalling, made up entirely of public roads around Italy, mostly on the outer parts of the country on 11–12 May 1957. The route was based on a round trip between Brescia and Rome, with start/finish, in Brescia. It was the 3rd round of the 1957 World Sportscar Championship season.
As in previous years, the event this not strictly a race against each other, this is race against the clock, as the cars are released at one-minute intervals with the larger professional class cars going before the slower cars, in the Mille Miglia, however the smaller displacement slower cars started first. Each car number related to their allocated start time. For example, Wolfgang von Trips’s car had the number 532, he left Brescia at 5:32am, while the first cars had started late in the evening on the previous day. Some drivers went with navigators, others didn't; a number of local Italian drivers had knowledge of the routes being used and felt confident enough that they wouldn't need one.
This race was won by Scuderia Ferrari driver Piero Taruffi without the aid of a navigator. He completed the 992-mile distance in 10 hours, 27 minutes and 47 seconds- an average speed of 94.841 mph. The Italian finished 3 minutes in front of his second-placed team-mate, the German driver, von Trips. Olivier Gendebien and Jacques Washer were next ensuring Scuderia Ferrari finished 1-2-3.

Report

Entry

A total of 391 cars were entered for the event, across 25 classes based on engine sizes, ranging from up to 750cc to over 2.0-litre, for Grand Touring Cars, Touring Cars and Sport Cars. Of these, 310 cars started the event. The limit on the number of starts was reduced from previous years. The Auto Club of Brescia took steps to try to combat the unsportsmanlike tactics by which some competitors sough to negate the procedure of drawing lots for departure times.
Even though the event continued to count towards the World Sportscar Championship, only Ferrari and Maserati entered work teams. Officine Alfieri Maserati was in administration though still managed to have two 450Ss for Stirling Moss and Jean Behra, a brand new 350S for Hans Herrmann and older 300S for the Italian Giorgio Scarlatti. Meanwhile, Scuderia Ferrari entered four Sports cars, to be driven by Taruffi, von Trips, Peter Collins and Alfonso de Portago. They also entered Gendebien in a Grand Touring car. Britain was represented by a single semi-works Jaguar D-Type, entered by the Scottish team Ecurie Ecosse for Ron Flockhart.
One of the more unusual entrants was a Caballo de Hiero for Akton Miller, a car constructed in the USA, with a powerful 6.4 litre Chrysler engine, mounted on a rudimentary single seat chassis, designed for use on oval circuits.

Race

Soon after the race started, Maserati’s hopes vanished. Before the event even started, Behra was out, having crashed his 450S during pre-test. As for Moss, he was forced to retire soon after the start having rather dangerously snapped a brake pedal and Herrmann did not get as far as the Ravenna checkpoint.
In Guidizzolo, less than 40 miles from Brescia, de Portago’s front tyre exploded. He lost control of the car; hit a telephone pole, jumped over a brook, hitting a few spectators in the process. Then the Ferrari bounced back on the road, hitting more spectators, slid over the road, spinning, and ended up, wheels down, in a brook at the other side of the road. Besides de Portago, his American navigator Edmont Nelson, ten spectators – among them five children – lost their lives. A further 20 were injured. De Portago’s body was found near the car, severed in half. Furthermore, Dutchman Joseph Göttgens crashed his Triumph TR3 near Florence and would die of his injuries in a Florence hospital.
When Taruffi arrived back in Brescia, he had more than a three-minute advantage over von Trips. With Gendebien in third, competing a sorrowful top three clean sweep for Ferrari. Maserati experienced a debacle with only Scarlatti making back to Brescia in fourth place overall, followed 15 minutes later by the Porsche 550 RS of Umberto Maglioli. Taruffi reached Brescia after racing for 10 hours and 27 minutes after he left Brescia at 05:35.
Three days after the race, the Italian government had enough and decreed the end of the Mille Miglia and banned all motor racing on the public roads of Italy. Taruffi thus became the last winner of this infamous event.

Classification

Official Results

Of the 310 starters, 172 were classified as finishers. Therefore, only a selection of notable racers has been listed below.
Class Winners are in Bold text.

Class Winners

ClassWinners
Sport +2000535Ferrari 315 STaruffi
Sports 2000451Ferrari 500 TRCMunaron
Sports 1500349Porsche 550 RSMaglioli
Sports 1100325Osca S950Cabianca
Sports 750138Osca S750Rigamonti
Grand Touring +2000417Ferrari 250 GT LWB ScagliettiGendebien / Washer
Grand Touring 2000308Fiat 8V ZagatoNobile / Cagnana
Grand Touring 1600225Porsche 356A CarreraSträhle / Linge
Grand Touring 1300105Alfa Romeo Giulietta SVConvert / Martin
Grand Touring 1100012Lancia Appia GT ZagatoMantovani
Grand Touring 100073D.B.-Panhard HBRVidilles
Grand Touring 75052Fiat-Abrath 750 ZagatoThiele
Touring Special +2000410BMW 502Heuberger
Touring Special 2000256Alfa Romeo 1900 TIAumas / Brandt
Touring Special 1600208Ford Taunus 15 MSpringer
Touring Special 1300040Peugeot 403Delageneste
Touring Special 1100006Fiat 1100/103Mandrini / Bertassi
Touring Special 100064Renault DauphineFrère
Touring Special 75014Renault 4CVChardin
Touring Prep 2000244Alfa Romeo 1900 TIFona / Della Tore
Touring Prep 1600206Peugeot 403Guiraud / Chevron
Touring Prep 1300032Alf Romeo GiuliettaMassari / Gatti
Touring Prep 11002348Fiat 1100/103 TVFaggi
Touring Prep 100063Panhard Dyna 54Chancel / Bergonoukoux
Touring Prep 7503Saab 93Lohmander / Kronegård

Standings after the race

Championship points were awarded for the first six places in each race in the order of 8-6-4-3-2-1. Manufacturers were only awarded points for their highest finishing car with no points awarded for positions filled by additional cars. Only the best 4 results out of the 6 races could be retained by each manufacturer. Points earned but not counted towards the championship totals are listed within brackets in the above table.